Vic police slammed over Williams tip-off

9 Oct 2012, 6:08 pm   -   Source: AAP
Police failed to act on a tip-off related to the murder of Carl Williams, Victoria's ombudsman says. (AAP)

Police failed to act on a tip-off related to the murder of Carl Williams, Victoria's ombudsman says. (AAP)

The Victorian ombudsman has criticised former senior police for failing to act on a tip-off related to the murder of gangland boss Carl Williams.

Senior police failed to follow up explosive intelligence linking some Victorian public servants to a criminal who may have been connected to the murder of gangland kingpin Carl Williams.

It has emerged an interstate integrity body contacted former chief commissioner Simon Overland alerting him to the intelligence, which also referred to another person of interest to Victoria Police.

Ombudsman George Brouwer said that on April 23, 2010, four days after Williams was murdered in Barwon Prison, the head of an interstate integrity body emailed Mr Overland.

"It referred to an alleged corrupt association between unidentified officers of a Victorian public sector agency and a Victorian criminal identity and suggested that this association may in some way be related to Mr Williams' death," Mr Brouwer said in a report tabled to the Victorian parliament on Tuesday.

"The email also canvassed information about another individual - a person of interest to Victoria Police."

Mr Overland told the ombudsman he passed the information on to his then deputy, Sir Ken Jones, who had oversight of all investigations into Williams' murder.

But Sir Ken says he knew nothing about it.

Mr Brouwer did not name the public sector agency concerned nor the public servants suspected of links to a criminal identity.

"It is concerning that Victoria Police is unable to say what, if any, action was taken in response to receiving this information," he said.

"It is also concerning that this intelligence information does not appear to have been provided to the Driver Taskforce (investigating Williams' murder).

"The timing of the information, coming four days after the death of Mr Williams, may have assisted the Driver Taskforce in identifying motives for the murder of Mr Williams."

Mr Brouwer criticised police for missing an opportunity to gather further information about the person of interest mentioned in the email.

He recommended police investigate the allegations and review record keeping practices relating to the management of intelligence information.

The commissioner for law enforcement data security will conduct the review and provide an interim report within three months, which will then be passed to government.

"The government welcomes a commitment from the chief commissioner of Victoria Police that allegations referred to in the report will now be thoroughly investigated," a spokeswoman for Police Minister Peter Ryan said in a statement.

Current chief commissioner Ken Lay said that after receiving Mr Brouwer's draft report he had asked for the emails to be converted into an intelligence report and be properly assessed.

"I am concerned that information of this highly sensitive nature would simply be emailed by another ... agency to Victoria Police in the manner it has," he told Mr Brouwer.

Mr Lay said he would write to the integrity body concerned and remind them they should send sensitive information through agreed official channels.

In a letter to the ombudsman, Mr Overland said he would not have expected to be briefed further on Sir Ken's handling of the information unless it turned into something significant.

Sir Ken retaliated, arguing in his response to the draft report: "For him (Mr Overland) to suggest that he would not expect follow-up briefings is absurd and he knows it.

"Any chief (commissioner) would have wanted to be kept up to date on such a massive issue."

Mr Overland's lawyer said his client disagreed with the characterisation of his conduct outlined in the draft report and said the outcome, as with other reports, was prejudged.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube